Twenty-two people lost their lives during the New Year long weekend from Sunday 30 December to the early hours of Tuesday 1 January. However, the 22 institutions and agencies that make up the Emergency Operations Center (COE) still need to add on the final tally, so the overall total could be even higher. Besides the fatalities, 21 in traffic accidents and one from alcohol poisoning, a further 246 were injured, for a total of 268 people affected, according to the COE report. The figure, at least as far as fatalities are concerned, is an increase compared to the same period last year, when there were 13 deaths, and nearly reaches the 24 deaths over the previous Christmas weekend.
COE director General Juan Manuel Mendez Garcia said that the increase was the result of more people traveling to and from the capital, estimated at about 750,000. “We have seen, as in former years, that people who have not had a drink for a whole year, want to do this for the year’s end, and then they mix alcohol and gasoline and this, regrettably, is the result,” said Mendez, while expressing his condolences to the affected families.